Category: Old Donegal

An investigation is continuing into a cold caller incident in Castlederg. 

Police received a report that a male purporting to be an NIE employee checking meters was circulating in the area of Ratyn Road, on the 9th December in a grey vehicle.

Checks with NIE confirm this male was not a genuine employee and when the male was challenged for ID he left the property at speed.

If you are in any doubt about a caller please ask the person for identification then ring QUICK CHECK on 0800 0132290 – genuine callers will not mind.

In an emergency dial 999.

 

The isolation period for people who test positive for Covid-19 has been cut from 10 to 7 days in Northern Ireland.

First Minister Paul Givan says the change takes effect tomorrow – and is subject to a negative antigen test on Day 6 and 7.

The Stormont Executive met earlier and decided not to introduce any more Covid restrictions.

The Omicron variant now accounts for 90 per cent of new cases in the North,

 

Walk-in Clinics for a Booster Vaccine will be available for anyone aged 30 and over this weekend at Letterkenny Vaccination Centre.

Walk-in Clinics for anyone aged 30 or older:

· Thursday 30 December – 8.30am to 7.30pm

· Friday 31 December – 8.30am to 7.30pm

· Saturday 01 January – 8.30am to 7.30pm

· Sunday 02 January – 8.30am to 7.30pm

· Monday 03 January – 4pm to 7.30pm

To be eligible for a booster vaccine, you must have reached the interval of at least 90 days since your second dose vaccine or single dose Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccine before coming to a walk-in clinic.

If you have had COVID-19, you can now get your booster dose vaccine 3 months after your positive test result.

Book an appointment

If you are eligible for a booster dose you can now go to hse.ie and select from a list of vaccination centres around the country and book your own booster appointment for a date and time that suits you.

To book an appointment for a booster vaccination go to hse.ie and search ‘book booster’ or click here:

https://www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/covid-19-vaccine/get-the-vaccine/booster-booking/

Currently there are appointment slots available to book on Friday 31 December from 5.30pm to 7.30pm and Sunday 02 January from 4pm to 7.30pm. The online appointment booking system is being updated regularly to include additional dates.

Scheduled Appointments

The vaccination centre is also running scheduled appointment clinics and anyone who receives an invitation by text is asked to come to the appointment if possible or reply to the text message to reschedule.

There is a separate queue for people with scheduled and booked appointments and this queue is prioritised.

Dose 1 and Dose 2 Vaccine

Anyone who has yet to get their first or second dose vaccine may come to any of the walk-in vaccination clinics listed above.

 

Letterkenny University Hospital is the most overcrowded in Ireland today with 40 people awaiting admission there this morning.

Eleven people were waiting on trolleys in its Emergency Department while a further 29 were waiting on wards.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is calling on the HSE to publish and implement a Plan B for dealing with the capacity crisis that is escalating within public acute hospital system.

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said:

“We are yet again seeing high numbers presenting to Emergency Departments across the country with 287 patients on trolleys today.

“From experience we know that if there are 287 patients for whom there is no bed in a hospital on December 30th, we know that figure will be tripled in early January. It is time now to scale back all activity within our public hospital system to emergency activity only.

“Our public health service is too small to try provide emergency care, COVID care and carry out elective treatments. Urgent elective work must be prioritised through the private hospital system.

“We know from the INMO Trolley Watch figures that Regional Hospital Mullingar, Letterkenny University Hospital, Portiuncula University Hospital have been acting in crisis mode in the last 48 hours because of high numbers of people presenting to their respective emergency departments.

Unless an urgent and workable plan is produced by the HSE, we will continue to see incidents like this well into January and February.

Letterkenny University Hospital issued a statement yesterday advising that visiting is restricted.

Due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the community, Saolta says access to visitors is now being limited to one person, per patient for 15 minutes per day.

The hospital is also currently dealing with a Covid-19 outbreak.

Visits to Letterkenny University Hospital must be pre-arranged by family members / visitors, who should contact the relevant ward or unit in advance.

 

Vacant pubs across the country are set to be turned into homes under government proposals.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien wants to extend exemptions for the conversion of commercial sites out to 2025.

The Irish Examiner reports it’ll mean people won’t need planning permission to turn a commercial unit into a residential one.

 

Mica must remain the number 1 priority in 2022.

That’s according to the Cathaoirleach of the Letterkenny Milford Municipal District.

Looking ahead, Councillor Jimmy Kavanagh says work must continue at national level to get a Mica redress scheme over the line which greatly assists homeowners.

He says the initial priority will be resolving delays affecting homeowners who have submitted stage 1 applications:

https://www.highlandradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jimmyk2022web.mp3

 

A man armed with an axe robbed a store in Tyrone yesterday evening.

Detectives are appealing for information following the report of an armed robbery which happened in Dungannon shortly before 8pm.

At around 7.50pm, it was reported that a man entered business premises in the Scotch Street area, smashed the security glass at the counter with an axe and demanded money from a staff member.

The suspect is described as being approximately 5 ft 4 ins to 5 ft 8 ins in height, of slim build, with a local accent, and was wearing a light grey tracksuit with blue stripes and the hood pulled up, a balaclava, black gloves, a blue baseball hat, and black and white trainers.

He made off on foot with a sum of cash.

In a statement Detective Sergeant Reid said: “The staff member, whilst physically unharmed, was left shaken by what was obviously a terrifying experience for them.

Enquiries into the incident are continuing, and police are appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time and has any information, or who saw a male matching this description, to call detectives on 101.

The annual Turkey Run Rally at Shackleton in Ballykelly was won by Desi Henry and John Rowan on Wednesday.

Henry drove his Hyundai i20 to victory with 7.4 seconds to spare over the chasing pack after five action packed runs.

Aaron McLaughlin and Darren Curran in a Fiesta were second with the similar Ford of Cathal McCourt and Sean O’Donnell third.

Joseph McGonigle and John McCay in another r5 Fiesta were fourth.

John Bradley was the first of the two wheel drive cars finishing 11th overall in his MarkII.

 

The Chief Medical Officer says everyone should consider themselves potentially infectious – as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continues to spread.

Dr Tony Holohan is urging people to avoid crowded shops where possible – and that it should be considered high-risk.

A record 16,428 new cases were confirmed yesterday – the highest since the pandemic started.

Anthony Staines, Professor of Health Systems at DCU, says he’s surprised at where the focus is:

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The Taoiseach says addressing the Mica crisis in affected counties will be difficult and challenging for the Government.

Micheal Martin says a significant number of families will have to live in rented accommodation while reconstruction works take place.

7,500 houses in the North West and west of the Country will be re-developed as part of the Government’s 2.2 billion Euro redress scheme.

The Taoiseach says the work on refurbishing and replacing affected houses will be a tough project to complete:

https://www.highlandradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/martin7am-1.mp3